In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth in the space of six days. On the seventh day, he rested. The Sabbath was a time of enthronement in which God enjoyed his work. Man, created as the image of God, was to follow God’s pattern of creative work in six days followed by a day of enthronement rest. After six days of work, man was called to ascend with God to be enthroned with him and enjoy the fruits of his labor with God.
The purpose of man’s labor was to develop the world so that it looked like God’s heavenly throne room. As man’s work progressed, God drew nearer, drawing heaven and earth together at the Tabernacle and, eventually, the Temple. God’s throne was established in the Holy of Holies, above the cherubim who sat atop the ark of the covenant (2Kg 19.15). This was the footstool of God’s throne, uniting heaven and earth. This was God’s resting place (2Chr 6.41). In worship each Sabbath day, man ascended to the throne of God through the mediation of animals, grain, oil, and fragrances, there to enjoy Sabbath rest, celebrating the work of the previous six days.
It is no mere coincidence that Pilate presents Jesus saying, “Behold, the man!” on the sixth day of the week. Jesus has been working up to this point, and he is about to finish his work. After this he will go to his Sabbath enthronement rest.
Images at the cross and tomb point us in this direction. Jesus is enthroned in the Holy of Holies. At the cross, Jesus is hung between two unholy cherubim, and, in the end, cries out, “It is finished” (Jn 19.30). He is passing through the veil with the sin of the world, suffering the fiery swords of the cherubim who guard the holiness of God. He finishes this work, is wrapped in linen clothes to do the work of the high priest at the throne of God. John tells us that, later, when Mary peered into the tomb, she saw two angels sitting, one at the head and the other at the foot of where Jesus had been laid. On the seventh day of the week, Jesus was enthroned to enjoy with the Father the fruit of his labor. This death-rest was both the culmination of man’s sin and the victory of Christ. It was also the celebration of a completed work while anticipating victory yet to come.
Holy Saturday is somewhat paradoxical, uniting the tensions of joy and sadness, of life and death, of work completed and hopeful anticipation, of the old passing away and the new not having fully come. Here is the place of joyful, unresolved tension that celebrates the completed work but at the same time cries out for final resolution through vindication; that praises God but also questions, “How long, O Lord?”
One way to view our lives as Christians in this present age is through the lens of Holy Saturday. We are enthroned with Christ in heavenly places (Eph 2.6). We are enthroned, but we are enthroned in decaying bodies, still struggling with sin, and living with its consequences daily. We celebrated the completed work of Christ while at the same time asking, “How long, O Lord?” We live in the joyful tension between our death-enthronement and resurrection.
Trouble comes when we try to resolve this tension that sinks into the hopelessness of the disciples at Jesus’ death or grasps for the future, believing that we should have everything promised in the present. We must learn to be content with the tension, mourning sin and its effects and celebrating joyfully in our hope.
